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Ventrue Beat Sheet
Beat Sheets are ways to gain extra beats (experience) to spend on your character, by delving further into the character's nuances and by giving storytelling staff more handles to interact with your character. Whenever a question asks you about someone from your past, you have the option of describing the relevant details and the interaction, but leaving them unnamed. This invites staff to match up the shadows in your past with the shadows in other PCs', giving another dimension of interaction. This Beat Sheet is for Ventrue only. Non-Ventrue characters may get up to five Beats from this sheet if there are questions that reasonably apply to them and have not been answered elsewhere. Ventrue Beat Sheet (Twenty Beats) 'The Kiss '(One Beat) The Kiss is an amazing, euphoric sensation - for both parties. For the vampire, hunger is a constant companion, a powerful, painful thirst that throbs and twists in the gut. Every gulp of the vessel's hot blood further suppresses that painful craving and adds to the already considerable pleasure that the vampire experiences from taste alone. Feeding is always orgasmically good, and while you're drinking you feel alive. In the afterglow your body hums, feeling full where before you were hollow. The Kiss is love and lust for both parties. It's the sex you know you shouldn't have, but will come back for. That said, the details are different for each vampire. A Ventrue's Kiss tends to be a power exchange, with all the elements that draw people to Domination and submission. For the victim it's the peace and rightness of surrender; for the Ventrue it's an affirmation of power, authority, and dominance. How does your Kiss feel for your vessel? How does it feel for you? 'The Curse '(Three Beats) The Ventrue suffer the Aloof Curse, the burden of being better than everyone else. How does your Curse influence your behavior? What strategies, if any, do you use to mitigate its effects? (Two Beats) All Ventrue rule, but the size of their kingdoms vary. Some dominate whole cities, while others master themselves and rule a kingdom of one. Where is your kingdom? Who do you rule? (One Beat) 'The Bloodsong '(One Beat) Vitae is always molten ecstacy. It burns the lips and scorches the throat, it's sweet and savory at the same time, it's the best thing you've ever tasted. That said, every vampire's blood tastes slightly different (much like every vintage of wine tastes slightly different) - and they're all the best thing you've ever tasted. Perhaps more importantly, the Blood is alive. A vampire can always feel it, whether it sluggishly collects in a soggy morass deep in the dead gut or whether it clings to the bones and burns like napalm. Again, there are commonalities between clans, though there's also a significantly greater scope for variation. For Ventrue, Blood is power. It might feel like puppet strings reaching from her eyes to her fingertips, a creaking flex of control. It might feel cold and slick, as sharp and unbreakable as obsidian. It might feel like calm certainty, filling every inch of the Lord's being, making him more himself ''than most people are. It might be a pulse of power that feels too great to be contained within her limited, aching skin. What is your Bloodsong? 'The Beast '(Five Beats) Your Beast has no separate existence from you, of course, but for most vampires it feels like an Other that lives inside the same skin, with its own desires. For vampires who maintain a firm grip on their sanity the Beast might only appear in the dreams of the daysleep or in their mind's eye, a purely psychological projection. Vampires who are a little less bound by objective reality might glimpse their Beast in the corner of their vision, or hear it whispering in their ear. How do you envision your Beast? Is it tied in some way to your deepest hungers? A bloated worm's neck and fat mouth for its bottomless hunger, a Priapic Big Bad Wolf for its depraved lusts? Does it have a voice, wicked in its mammalian seduction or crass in its beserk invective? Could the Beast be something from your mortal life, such as an abusive father dragging his whipping belt or your once-best friend, murdered in frenzy? The Beast within might just be an embodiment of you at your worst: bloody, brutal, wide-eyed, savage in the deepest meaning of the word. Describe your Beast. (Two Beats) Every vampire can evoke three aspects of the Beast by lashing out with her predatory aura: *The Monstrous Beast is the Beast as Destroyer, whose every instinct is to rip asunder and who evokes primative survival instincts in its victims. *The Seductive Beast is the Beast as Tempter, who desires hot abandon, and a temporary escape from reality, inspiring the primal need for instant gratification in its victims. *The Competitive Beast is the Beast as Alpha, who needs to command and control, and evokes submission or proof of dominance from its victims. Describe how each aspect of your Beast manifests in your predatory aura. How does it feel to the victim? (One Beat each) 'Controlling it '(One Beat) At those moments when the Beast rises within you and frenzy threatens, how does it feel to try and stave off those urges? Perhaps you imagine the Beast literally caged, snarling and snapping inside bars of iron or steel. Perhaps you do the mental equivalent of covering your ears with both hands and declaring 'lalala, I'm not listening' to its whispers. Perhaps you feel it only as a rising surge of emotion and combat it with the old tricks of mortality - a deep calming breath, conscious control of your volume and tone, the relaxation of tensed muscles. 'Frenzy '(Three Beats) No two vampires behave exactly the same way when they enter frenzy. The basic personality of the vampire is distilled into its most predatory during the loss of control, eliminating the obstruction of higher mental function, but retaining certain traits. Outgoing, physical Kindred may howl with rage and tear mindlessly at their prey, while more withdrawn intellectual types become chillingly silent, moving with horrifying precision. A vampire's bloodsong strongly influences how they behave at such times, and correspondingly there are clan-related patterns. When Ventrue frenzy it often seems righteous and right, an untamable natural phenomenon like a thunderstorm or a waterfall. The things that push a vampire into frenzy tend to fall into basic categories: fear, hunger, anger. The Beast's behavior is obviously different depending on the frenzy's trigger and the Beast's desires. Describe a time that you have frenzied. What was it the Beast wanted, and how did it behave? You may give up to three examples, with each addressing a different motivation. (One Beat each) 'Powers '''(Three to Six Beats) You can't learn a Discipline without it changing you. Oh, not a deeply as a Coil changes you, granted - more insidiously than that, and on a psychological rather than a physical level. Many vampires notice that Animalism seems to reflect and amplify the soul of the vampire who uses it. Those who believe that they are (and should aspire to be) part of the natural world seem to find spiritual strength in it, anchoring themselves to the living world, sharing it and speaking with it on its own terms. On the other hand, those who consider themselves separate and superior wield the Discipline as a crushing weapon, distancing themselves further from nature and, paradoxically, drawing closer to the Beast within. All of them, however, have to deal with the philosophical implications of being able to communicate with animals as easily as they can communicate with humans. For some it makes animals seem more like people; for others, it makes people seem more like animals. If you have Animalism, how has it affected you? (Two Beats) If you don't, what is your opinion of it, and those who use it? (One Beat) The power to bend others to one's will is very much a double-edged sword. It allows the Ventrue to crush opposition every time they face the slightest dispute, making people into playthings (or, for a Master of Dominate, suits to be worn) and the fall into tyranny as simple as letting go of a rope. The power to rewrite memories is to remove all evidence from the world of your own failings - though that comes with the danger of becoming sloppy. An adept of Dominate can clean up a Masquerade breach easily, and therefore doesn't need to be quite so cautious about not causing one in the first place. There is a paranoia that goes along with mastery of this Discipline, however. How can the Ventrue be sure that his own memories are real? How can he protect himself against someone else who would use him as a puppet? If you have Dominate, how has it affected you? (Two Beats) If you don't, what is your opinion of it, and those who use it? (One Beat) Resilience doesn't remove the pain of injury, but it does remove many of the consequences. Many Resilient vampires feel that they are indestructible, and become inclined to see all setbacks are temporary or superficial. It's harder to take many dangers seriously when a sword looks as threatening as a letter opener. That said, when something ''does ''damage a vampire with Resilience, they are more likely to overestimate its threat level than to underestimate it. The other common issue Ventrue find is that they are less tolerant of their own failures - and to be injured is to have failed. If you have Resilience, how has it affected you? (Two Beats) If you don't, what is your opinion of it, and those who use it? (One Beat) Category:Beat Sheets Category:Ventrue